State Briefs 2/29/08

Bus driver suspended for leaving two 3-year-old children alone on a bus

PEORIA – A bus driver who left two 3-year-old children on a Head Start bus was suspended and may face further disciplinary action.

Further action may be taken against the driver, Joseph Cherry, 61, and the bus monitor, Safrona Hunn, 23, by their employer, Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity Inc., agency president McFarland Bragg said Thursday. Head Start is a program supervised by PCCEO.

The Department of Children and Family Services is also investigating and would not comment on the matter.

Cherry, a substitute driver, was driving the route Feb. 20 and failed to follow the agency's procedure of checking the bus to make sure all of the students had gotten off.

The regular bus driver was off work sick with the flu, Bragg said.

A boy and a girl were left alone on the bus from about noon until 3:30 p.m., when temperatures averaged 13 degrees.

Hunn, who was involved in a training program, is being held accountable because one of her duties was to count the number of children getting off the bus and match it to the number the bus driver picked up.

"If she would have counted, she would have seen she was missing two kids," Bragg said of the 25 children on that bus.

Bragg said the agency has no plans to change its transportation policy. The agency, however, is putting in place another safeguard to prevent such an incident from happening again.

"Our lead bus driver is going to physically inspect each vehicle after each run to ensure no kids have been left on the bus," Bragg said.

Since the incident, the children, who were not injured, have not returned to Head Start. Bragg said the agency sent formal apology letters to the children's parents, offering them counseling services for their children.

Journal Star, Peoria

Caregiver charged with financial exploitation

PEORIA - A Farmington woman faces up to 15 years in prison for allegedly taking more than $10,000 from an 83-year-old woman for whom she was providing home health care.

Dawn R. Derenzy, also known as Dawn Baty, 42, was charged in Peoria County Circuit Court with financial exploitation of an elderly person and theft for allegedly using the woman's credit card from July 2007 until two weeks ago.

Assistant State's Attorney Steve Pattelli said Derenzy was working in the woman's home and allegedly had access to one of her credit cards.

Over the several months, she allegedly charged plane tickets, car insurance premiums, a U-Haul rental and four tickets to a St. Louis Rams football game.

"Clearly these were not related to the care of the victim," Pattelli said in open court.

Derenzy allegedly admitted making the charges and said she had planned to pay them back. Pattelli said the amount was still being determined but could be as high as $25,000.

Peoria County Judge Glenn Collier set bond at $75,000 and scheduled a March 27 preliminary hearing.

Journal Star, Peoria

Inquest leaves unanswered questions

LEWISTOWN - Grieving family members will probably never know what killed a 2-year-old St. David girl on Halloween night last year.

Taylor Hamm's death was ruled by a medical investigator to have been caused by sudden unexpected death syndrome, Fulton County Coroner Steve Hines said Thursday at a coroner's inquest.

The next month, Taylor's mother died of a methadone overdose. Within two weeks, a friend of the family also died of a methadone overdose.

More than 20 friends and relatives crowded into a Fulton County courtroom for Thursday's inquest.

Taylor had been out trick-or-treating with her family on Halloween night in Lewistown and became short of breath on the ride home, Hines said.

She seemed to have a seizure in the car but snapped out of it quickly when her mother shook her. When the family arrived home, she took off her costume and collapsed face down in the kitchen, Hines said. Her parents, Jake and Jennifer Hamm, took her to Graham Hospital in Canton, where she was pronounced dead.

Authorities have run numerous tests but haven't come up with any conclusive reason why she died. She had eaten chocolate-covered peanuts on Halloween and showed signs of a slight allergic reaction to something, but there's no evidence it killed her, Hines said.

Taylor's tearful grandparents asked questions about her white blood cell
count and some red bumps on her arm.

"There are probably a dozen possibilities that could have happened," Hines said.

"Through autopsy and investigation, we are not able to pinpoint the God's honest truth of what happened to her body ... I wish we could, to be honest with you. I really do."

The coroner's jury found the cause of death to be undetermined.

The jury also found the Nov. 22 death of Taylor's mother to be accidental.

Jennifer Hamm, 26, kissed her husband and father that night and went to bed, where Jake Hamm found her dead, Fulton County Sgt. Brad Ward said.

She had 10 times the therapeutic dosage of methadone in her system.

The jury also asked police to keep looking into the Dec. 6 death of Joe Hadsall, 31, of Lewistown. Hadsall was a close friend of Jake Hamm. They had been out drinking the night before, and Hamm found Hadsall dead in the trailer, Illinois State Police investigator Bob Coulter said.

Hadsall died from early bronchial pneumonia and cocaine and methadone toxicity, Hines said. The jury found his cause of death to be undetermined.

Journal Star, Peoria

Galesburg man faces additional charges

GALESBURG - A Galesburg man arrested Tuesday for the alleged sexual
assault of a 12-year-old girl in September has been charged with assaulting an 18-year-old woman the same month.

Predatory criminal sexual assault of a child is punishable by six to 30 years in prison. Criminal sexual assault is punishable by four to 15 year in prison.

Curtis allegedly assaulted the woman in a vehicle parked on Grand Avenue on Sept. 14. She made a report to police, sought medical care and called a crisis hotline but didn't pursue criminal charges out of fear of retaliation, Galesburg Capt. Lindsey May said Thursday.

She decided to move forward with her own case after reading Wednesday that Curtis allegedly picked up a 12-year-old girl who was walking to school and sexually assaulted her at his apartment, May said.

The woman picked Curtis from a photo lineup Wednesday, and formal charges were filed.

On Sept. 12, 2007, Curtis approached a 12-year-old girl who was walking to school and scared her. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a $100 fine.
May said police are investigating any other possible reports of assault in the area. Curtis remains jailed on $50,000 bond.

Journal Star, Peoria

I-90 crash injures 2, leads to DUI charge

CHERRY VALLEY -- A 22-year-old Rockford man who drove his car off the Newburg Road bridge last night and onto a semitrailer and another vehicle passing below him on Interstate 90 has been charged with driving under the influence.

Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Rick Seales said additional charges might be pending as the investigation is ongoing.

Brown was driving a Nissan sedan when the Cadillac struck the back of a semitrailer and then struck her vehicle, police said. She had to be extricated from the wreckage before she was flown to OSF Saint Anthony.

A 12-year-old girl, a passenger in Brown’s car, was not hurt.

The Newburg bridge, which crosses I-90 between Mill and Bell School roads, closed Feb. 18 for construction. It is slated to reopen in July.

Police say Peterson was heading east about 6:20 p.m. when he drove around barricades and off the bridge.

Rockford Register Star

Woman accused of obstructing justice in attorney’s death stays in jail

ROCKFORD --The woman who police say lied to them during their investigation into a Rockford attorney’s shooting death will remain in jail despite her efforts to dismiss her charges.

Diane Chavez’s attorney, Steven Lee, asked the judge Thursday to throw out the obstruction of justice charge because court documents do not say what Chavez, 49, is alleged to have done.

Lee said the document is “fundamentally defective” because it lacked a specific allegation.

But after Winnebago County Assistant State’s Attorney Bob Fuenty filed an amended version of the document Thursday morning, Judge Joe McGraw accepted the amended information and set a court date of March 10.

Chavez is in Winnebago County Jail on $500,000 bond. Police say she lied to them Feb. 6 when they went to her home looking for Richard E. Wanke Jr., who they believed was her roommate.

Wanke was a client of slain attorney Gregory Clark, and police wanted to question him about the Feb. 6 shooting. According to the amended information, Chavez told police that Wanke did not live in her Grant Avenue duplex.

Police found Wanke later that day, and he was jailed on a judge’s order although he has not been charged in the case. Wanke and Chavez have been tied to the police’s investigation into Clark’s death.

Rockford Register Star

Chief will not face charges

ROCKFORD – The battle between Police Chief Chet Epperson and the department’s union took another turn Thursday when the county’s top prosecutor said felony complaints against the chief were not supported by facts.

In December, Police Sgt. Robert Redmond accused Epperson of lying under oath during a police officer disciplinary hearing. Redmond, who is also the department’s hostage negotiations supervisor, accused Epperson of twice violating a state law on eavesdropping in connection with two separate incidents involving two armed men who barricaded themselves in houses before surrendering to police.

But a state police probe into Redmond’s allegations did not support the facts of the case, said Winnebago County State’s Attorney Philip Nicolosi.

“It was our desire not to have this issue continuing to hang over the community,” Nicolosi said. “I’m very pleased that our office, working with the state police, were able to investigate the allegations and get a decision out to the public within 90 days.”

Redmond and Epperson declined to comment on Nicolosi’s decision, but union President Aurelio DeLaRosa said in a written statement that union leaders are “relieved” that Epperson will not be charged with a crime.

Rockford Register Star

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